Another Sunday, another big midday meal after church.
We've had a string of beautiful days this month. Oh yes, there have been a couple of rainy days. But for the most part, it's been one sunny day after another. But it is growing chillier as each day becomes shorter. For that reason, we decided we should have one last cook-out over the fire ring, but during the day.
Saturday afternoon I dovetailed cooking another pumpkin with starting Sunday's meal. When I'd finished running the cooked pumpkin through the food processor, I used the same processor without cleaning to make the pumpkin soufflé mixture. It's just pumpkin, a little sugar, some nutmeg, 2 eggs, and some soft butter all whipped together. I put that into a buttered casserole dish and kept it in the fridge overnight.
I also cleaned the baby purple potatoes. If you've grown your own potatoes you know what I mean when I say they are so dirty and need a lot of washing. Store-bought potatoes are cleaned before shipping to stores. They need minimal washing once home. Home-grown potatoes come out of the soil caked in dirt. To prevent spoilage of the home-grown ones, it's recommended to not wash them right after harvest, instead wait until just before each use for washing. So washing the potatoes on Saturday was a time-saver for Sunday. The only other thing I could do on Saturday was select 4 nice red tomatoes for grilling.
Sunday morning, I baked the soufflé and roasted the potatoes before church. I also set up the fire ring with cut wood and paper, with hopes the fire would be quick to start. When we came home from church, I grilled the tomatoes, reheated the pumpkin and potatoes, and lit the fire. The fire itself was a bit troublesome. It seems the cold and damp air overnight did a number on the wood. The paper all burned just fine, but the wood refused to catch fire. My daughters helped me out while I was in the kitchen and tended the fire until it was going well.
We roasted hot dogs over the fire, then pulled our chairs right up next to the ring to keep the chill off.
I had baked chocolate chip cookies on Friday, so they made the perfect dessert after the midday meal. It was a simple menu, but delicious.
Here's the complete menu:
Oven-roasted baby purple potatoes
Pumpkin soufflé
Grilled tomatoes
Chocolate chip cookies
My plan for the evening meal was to pull leftovers out of the fridge and let everyone help themselves. As it turned out, there weren't enough leftovers for us all to make a plate. I pivoted last minute to an easy homemade tomato soup (tomato paste, celery leaves, onion, canned tomato dices, salt, oregano, and a flour/water slurry to thicken) and toasted cheese sandwiches.
The day went okay, but it was not as nice and leisurely as previous Sundays. I suppose that just happens sometimes. Everyone had some place they needed or preferred to be. But I can say I did my job. I prepared both meals on Sunday.
I continue to work at harvesting and preserving our harvest. Today I harvested the rest of the Swiss chard. I needed that bed to plant next year's garlic. After pulling up the chard plants I worked some amendments into the soil and planted the garlic bulbs. One more thing done. This time of the season the fatigue begins to plague me. It's physically taxing. But I see an end just around the corner.
How was your weekend?
The weather has taken a turn toward cooler especially at night and lingers into the morning. We try not to turn the furnace on but it also makes no sense to shiver inside the house. We turn it on briefly to take the chill out then turn it off. The days are a bit cooler but for Mid October, it is mild. So we make and eat soup! We had lasagna soup last week. A week before was white chicken chili with kale. I froze leftovers of both of these. Thursday was chicken and rice soup. Friday was cheese broccoli and Sunday was chicken tortilla. Our daughter was over for two days due to an annual teachers convention held in our town so she stayed for two days and she took home soup and ate soup with us. She loves soup as do we. I have regular ones but always am looking for new ones to try. We have another week of moderate temps and the leaves have not all started to turn color nor fall off the trees which is quite late.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds delightful, Alice -- your evening meals of soup, the pleasant days, and leaves only starting to change color. And I'm glad for you that your daughter could stay with you a couple of nights. Is the town where she lives very far from your home?
DeleteNot far..only 40 minutes or so and the venue was equal distance from her home as from ours but the city congested traffic coupled with construction made her nervous to drive and find parking so she convinced dad to be her taxi driver for both days of the conference (which he happily did!) and we got her presence for one night for dinner and the next day for supper before she went home. She came early the morning of the conference and only stayed one night but it was nice. In case anyone wonders, teachers are the busiest workers. They teach all day then prep all evening for the next day planning and correcting. Even on down days like a two day convention they still need to plan and get ready for the next day. Even experienced teachers. This is her 11th year of teaching and she's always busy and she loves teaching!
DeleteI''m so glad you are having nice fall weather, Lili. It's a glorious autumn week here in west Michigan (as you already heard from Alice). My daughter was home on her fall break (except for the nigh she spent with friends) and it was a treat to have her here. I swear that time speeds up when she's home. Already she is back at school. I hope everyone had a great weekend and are getting beautiful weather to enjoy!
ReplyDeleteNo killing frost yet for my Midwestern garden (our average here being 10/15) -- so, while it's certainly slowed down, things are still hanging on to some degree. Thus I still feel the pull to glean from it as much as we're able (despite the fact I'm really kind of mentally and physically over it by now lol...!).
ReplyDelete